My 100-word book review
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Don't even think about starting The Rise of Endymion until you have read the three other Cantos novels in order. Simmons does his best to tie up the loose ends, and largely succeeds, concluding his epic series in fine style. This novel has plenty of action, breathtaking alien environments, pathos and humour; it also has its share of tragedy, although this story is ultimately life affirming. The characters are excellent, hardly ever stereotypical. Devout Catholics might be somewhat disturbed at the transformation of the Church into an evil empire; otherwise this is a terrific end to a superlative SF series.
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An Astoundingly Strong Finish
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As great as the three preceding novels in Dan Simmons' Hyperion series were, this final installment makes all of them pale in comparison. Here, at last, all of the loose ends, not just from Endymion, but from the Hyperion Cantos as well, are brought back together to form a conclusion that is riveting, heartbreaking, hopeful, and joyous in turn. And that's just the last half of the book. Throughout the first half, we again are treated to the fruit of Simmons' gifts for beautiful prose, incredible characterization, and well-conceived plot. It also shows us what's at the real heart of the series: Simmons' philosophy of Love, as embodied by Aenea. This last novel's style is, yet again, a fairly sharp departure from that of any of the rest of the series. We don't have the broad, sweeping "Canterbury Tales" feeling of the Hyperion Cantos, nor are we involved in an interstellar game of chase like Endymion. Instead, the book is much more thoughtful and deliberate. Simmons' directly addresses some of the nagging questions from the series, such as the relationship between the evil church and its not-necessarily evil religious roots and the fate of good people deceived into working towards detestable ends. While there is certainly plenty of action and fast paced adventure, Aenea's teachings are the focus, and that reflective tone permeates the novel. However, atop all of this thinking and philosophy, we still have an intricate plot to keep us entertained. We finally see the fruition of the Raul-Aenea romance foretold in Endymion, with all its accompanying emotional bumps, and naturally, the Church, along with its inhuman Core counterparts, is still out hunting for Aenea's head. Don't forget, Raul still has to somehow complete Martin Selinus' Herculean tasks. It all makes for an exciting ride, indeed. If you've read the other Hyperion novels, read this last part immediately. If you haven't, read them, then read this as soon as you can. And whatever you do, take the plot as it comes; there are some enormous twists towards the end, and you will hate yourself if you spoil them beforetime.
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The most beautiful story I've ever read?
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Dan Simmons is a wonderfully devious writer. His characters are real (complete with jealousies, inadequacies and personable quirks), his plots both amazing and believable, and the prose itself just simply beautiful. He does have moments of pandering (not unlike Stephen King) but instead of detracting, they usually reinforce that he is present in each of his characters (a trait I've always felt should be necessary to good writing).
Read the Hyperion series if you want to consider yourself a well-read sci-fi geek (like me!) I make all my friends read it!!
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Wow... this is bad...
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I read and liked "Illium" by Dan Simmons and liked it, so I bought "Hyperion" which was also really good. I then read "Fall of Hyperion" which was still pretty good. Then "Endymion" was not so good but still worth reading. But this book, I mean really, is bad. I only gave it a 2 because the first 2 books were really good. Mr. Simmons rambles on and on and on about nothing at all. It's hard to read! At one point I spent 5 pages reading about the main character walking around a mountain side for no reason at all. He describes, in depth, how he finds rocks and whatnot on the way... Then he basically says that the first 2 books (the good ones I remind you) where all lies concocted by the old poet. I mean, really, he apparently decided he was Buddhist and wanted to push the Buddhist philosophy. The only way he could do that was to re-write the first 2 books. Here are the points he tried to push in the book:
1. There is no God
2. Jesus was confused
3. Death is inevitable and important for evolution
4. The only true happiness happens when you are you are having sex with someone you 'love' Be prepared for him to tell you this OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER... He'll tell you through long boring conversations between people. He'll tell you through long boring speeches given by the "Non-Messiah". He'll tell you through long boring dream sequences of the main character. He'll tell you through the "unpredictable" yet inevitable series of events that is the "future". And all of these things happen over and over and over again. The Speeches are in the dozens... the conversations are in the hundreds. Entire chapters are just 2 people sitting there talking about the same stuff over and over again. (...) I recommend reading the first 2 books and not reading the last 2. Endymion was alright but you can't read it without having to read this one and this one is BAD.
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Incredibly disappointed
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This book was a major disappointment. Throughout the entire book Simmons basically re-writes the first three books of this series and when he's not re-writing, he's rambling on to excess attempting to give vivid descriptions that last pages and pages and about plot items that really have nothing to do with the story at hand. It seems Simmons had discovered eastern religions (i.e. buddhism etc.) and had to tell us about in this book. It was unbearibly frustrating to read about how characters die, but maybe not depending on whatever plot device Simmons chooses to introduce completely arbitrarily. The book reminds me of some of the really bad episodes of the "X-Files" where the whole episode revolves around one line "what is the truth Mulder?" "I don't know. What is the truth Scully?". This series started off with so much promise and it just ends as a complete dud. Especially Raul and Aenea's relationship, ridiculous it was, the dialog between them. My recommendation is to stop reading after "Endymion", but I understand that you'll have to finish the series as I did, but it really disappointed me. I do understand the major themes of the book, but I only need to understand them once, you know like maybe in the first one hundred pages. I didn't need to be retold what they were over and over again in the next 600 pages.
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